The Writer by Valerie Keogh

“Writers often live in their heads.”

I want to thank Net Galley for allowing me to read this ARC!

Synopsis:

The Writer is a Psychological Thriller and focuses on Cara, a well-known author who is about to start writing her thirtieth book. There’s one problem: she does not have any ideas on what to write and feels the pressure from her publisher to have the next big hit out as soon as she can. To make matters worse, she starts receiving these letters which appear harmless at first, but gradually become more threatening. Cara fears someone is watching and following her; she is determined to find out who it is.

My thoughts:

This one was incredible and did not take me long to finish! Keogh does an excellent job of painting Cara as an unreliable narrator, making us and Cara doubt the intentions of everyone we meet, including her. We are always left wondering whether what we have been told is true, and whether the truth is hidden behind layers of lies, often due to the main character being in denial or refusing to accept the reality of their circumstances. In The Writer, facts are confused with fiction; Cara brings our attention to this too. This was thrilling as a reader — I felt like a detective trying to filter and differentiate what Cara has imagined from the events which actually took place.

The narrative itself is unique and nothing I have read before. I don’t normally read Thrillers involving authors, but the aspect of the letters intrigued me throughout, and I just wanted to know who wrote them as soon as possible! I did find the pacing a bit slow towards the middle, but it quickly escalated towards the end and I couldn’t stop flipping the pages.

I did not anticipate any of the plot twists or the ending! Some of them made sense when they occurred, though most of them took me by surprise.

Overall, this book was a 4-star read for me! If you love reading about unreliable narrators or thrillers in general, definitely give this a read when it comes out!

The Writer is published on July 15th. You can follow Valerie Keogh on Instagram to stay updated with her work.